The invention relates to a Gripper assembly and a method for gripping a tire component, in particular a tire component for forming a body ply or a breaker ply.
Grippers for gripping tire components are known in different sizes and shapes and with different gripping techniques to optimally grip tire components of different sizes and shapes. In particular the length of subsequently handled tire components may vary considerably, for example when building two breaker plies out of alternatingly shorter and longer tire components. The known grippers have to be interchanged for each tire component that either has a different size or a different shape compared to the previously handled tire component. In particular for grippers operating with suction, it is important to ensure that the right gripper is selected for each tire component such that the area of the selected gripper sufficiently matches the tire component, otherwise air leakage will prevent the buildup of sufficient underpressure to retain the tire component. The interchanging of grippers is time consuming.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a gripper assembly and a method for gripping a tire component, wherein the flexibility of the gripper can be improved.